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Black Swallowtail larva

Papilio polyxenes

Description:

instar of black swallowtail

Notes:

Thanks for help on the ID.

1 Species ID Suggestions



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3 Comments

ForestDragon
ForestDragon 9 years ago

I am certain. This may be somewhere around second or third instar. They start out quite small and are bird poop mimics. They change appearance as they grow. I have an almost complete series from egg to adult for the Black Swallowtail in my spottings starting here: http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/159...

The link I provided on the ID suggestion also has a series photo if you scroll down a bit on the page that shows the general progression of size and appearance of these caterpillars through the different instars. :-)

nlralph
nlralph 9 years ago

Not sure you can see the scale of this, but it's pretty small - probably about 5/8".
Does that still compute for black swallowtail? I have seen them in this park, so it makes sense.

ForestDragon
ForestDragon 9 years ago

This looks like an earlier instar Black Swallowtail caterpillar. Anise Swallowtails do not occur in the eastern US, they are a western species.
Black swallowtail caterpillars can often be found on dill and fennel, as well as parsley.

nlralph
Spotted by
nlralph

NYC, New York, USA

Spotted on Aug 24, 2014
Submitted on Aug 24, 2014

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